In 2007, Mooresville Graded School District developed a strategic plan to infuse twenty-first-century learning skills into the schools by providing staff and students in grades four through twelve with a laptop computer. In late fall of 2007, Mooresville High School deployed laptops to all certified staff and to the entire student body in the…

As teacher professional development research includes more experimental designs, new challenges arise. We examine the threat of participant attrition as an example of the types of problems researchers face. Counter-intuitively, higher levels of recruitment effort were related to higher dropout rates among teachers. We also found that teachers left…

Limited-residency and online doctoral programs have an attrition rate significantly higher than traditional programs. This grounded-theory study focused on issues pertaining to communication between students, their peers and faculty and how interpersonal communication may affect persistence. Data were collected from 17 students actively working on…

One-in-five of Arizona's youth did not complete high school and a similarly large proportion of the state's youth is disconnected from either work or education. These youth face higher risks of unemployment and economic insecurity and are more reliant on government supports. This situation, which fails to ensure that the state's youth are…

The central goal of this study is to gain insight into students' study approach, their personal reasons and the relations between them regarding students who continue or withdraw from the educational system within one year. Results of our questionnaire study show that students who continue their educational careers show higher scores on a…

About 15% of the nation's high schools produce more than "half of its dropouts" and close to "75% of its minority dropouts." Half of these schools are found primarily in the cities of the North, Midwest, and West. The other half are found throughout the South and Southwest in urban, suburban, and rural areas. If only a very few students were not…

This qualitative phenomenological study of the life experiences of seven rural gifted individuals who dropped out of school investigated whether they shared commonalities that might have led to the phenomenon of dropping out. The problem was that no one had asked them to share their stories prior to this study. By searching for meaning in their…

College student retention has been and continues to be one of the most important issues facing the higher education community. Despite this importance, little is known about the type and methodological rigor of institutional efforts to increase student retention. This article presents the findings of a study which attempted to gain a clearer…

Examined in this study were faculty perceptions of students who do not continue their college education. Also examined was how urban and rural community colleges faculty perceived academic preparation, work ethics, and institutional support as predictors of student success. In this predictive study of community college faculty, 36 faculty members…

In this qualitative phenomenological study, we sought to explore the life experiences of 7 rural gifted individuals who dropped out of school. In addition, we investigated whether participants shared commonalities that might have led to the phenomenon of dropping out. The problem was that a paucity of research exists about gifted dropouts;…

It is estimated that of approximately 150-250 million children with disabilities across the world, a large number have difficulties related to problems in the central nervous system (CNS). This paper considers school dropout rates of children with special educational needs associated with CNS problems from a study of educational institutions in…

The objectives of this systematic review were to summarize the available evidence on the effects of prevention and intervention programs aimed at primary and secondary students for increasing school completion or reducing school dropout. The primary focus of the meta-analysis was to examine the comparative effectiveness of different programs and…

On March 4th, 2010, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction released its annual statewide Dropout Report covering the 2008-09 school year. The charts in this report show the dropout rate for Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) compared to the state as a whole, to other large school districts in North Carolina, and by federal No…

This study examines the impact of the zero-tolerance policies on Black males' educational experiences and outcomes. Individual interviews were conducted with Black males who dropped out of high school. Using counter-storytelling within a critical race theory framework, Black males discussed the influence of the zero-tolerance policies on their…

This article examines the relationship of wartime experience and reintegration supports to students' risk of school dropout. It draws on longitudinal, mixed-methods data collected among children and youth in Sierra Leone from 2002 through 2008. The study finds that family financial support and perceived social support are positively associated…